Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States called Friday for tougher U.N. sanctions after North Korea said it test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile to date, with Kim Jong Un vowing to expand his country’s “nuclear war deterrent” while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the United States.

The launch Thursday extended a barrage of weapons demonstrations this year that analysts say are aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions against its broken economy.

SEOUL, March 25 (Reuters) - North Korea's latest launch was a big, new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state media reported on Friday, a test leader Kim Jong Un said was designed to demonstrate the might of its nuclear force and deter any U.S. military moves.

Thursday's launch was the first full ICBM test by nuclear-armed North Korea since 2017. Flight data indicated the missile flew higher and longer than any of North Korea's previous tests before crashing into the sea west of Japan. 

NANNING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The core site of the recent plane crash in south China will be excavated as all-out efforts are made to continue searching for survivors and the second black box, officials said at a news briefing on Friday.

Field exploration and shallow surface excavation have been carried out at the core crash site in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

BEIJING, March 24 (APP): Pakistan and China have been very closely coordinating on the Ukraine crisis and share a common position on the issue, calling for the de-escalation of the conflict and dialogue between the relevant parties, said Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque.

BEIJING, Mar. 24 (APP): Pakistani students graduated from Chinese institutions are playing important role in technology transfer, said Dr. Abid Ali, Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Adjunct Professor at Shenyang Normal University, China and Research Fellow at Lanzhou University, China.

“So far, 20,000 Pakistani students have graduated from China. And frankly, you would be surprised to see figures that more than 30,000 students are currently studying in China,” he said during an interview with China Economic Net (CEN).

SEOUL, March 24 (Reuters) - North Korea conducted what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test ever on Thursday, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, marking a dramatic end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing.

It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state's largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major step in the North's development of weapons that might be able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China's Tianwen-1 orbiter has beamed back high-resolution images of Mars, showing dust storms on the surface of the planet.

Released by the China National Space Administration on Thursday, the new pictures with a resolution of 0.5 meters were captured by a camera on the probe, which has been operating in orbit for 609 days at a distance of 277 million km from Earth.

Track marks left by Mars rover Zhurong can be seen in the pictures. With its 306 Martian days of service, the rover has traveled a total of 1,784 meters on the planet.

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged the United States to remove all additional tariffs on Chinese goods to get the bilateral economic and trade ties back on the right track as early as possible.

Commenting on the U.S. announcement to reinstate 352 tariff exclusions for Chinese products, Shu Jueting, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, told a press conference that the move is conducive to the normal trade of these goods.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea test-fired a suspected long-range missile toward the sea Thursday, its neighbors’ militaries said. The launch, which extended North Korea’s barrage of weapons tests this year, came after the U.S. and South Korean militaries said the country was preparing a flight of its biggest-yet intercontinental ballistic missile.

WUZHOU, China (AP) — The search area was expanded Thursday for the second black box from a China Eastern passenger jet that crashed in southern China with 132 people on board earlier this week, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Off-and-on rain was impeding the search for a second straight day. One of the black boxes, believed to be the cockpit voice recorder, was found Wednesday. Its outer casing was damaged but the orange cylinder was relatively intact, investigators said.